playing .mkv with 4K and Atmos

[ankitbhargava]

What were you not able to get from Netflix, now that it has support for Atmos and HDR?

I have been very satisfied with streaming Netflix using Xbox One S... 4K/Atmos/HDR all work well.
However comparing the quality with even a dowloaded BluRay rip ..netflix doesn't stand a chance.
I wanted to have a Media Player which would play .mkv files and supports 4k+Atmos, Shield TV Pro did the job.

 

[edjamesx]

I have been very satisfied with streaming Netflix using Xbox One S... 4K/Atmos/HDR all work well.
However comparing the quality with even a dowloaded BluRay rip ..netflix doesn't stand a chance.
I wanted to have a Media Player which would play .mkv files and supports 4k+Atmos, Shield TV Pro did the job.

Yes correct... I also felt sometimes . Even downloading a 1080 p rips (4gb) mkv files easily beats Netflix / amazon prime quality.
Sound separation and sound quality also better in downloaded content.
I stopped downloading rips mainly because of piracy && pain of searching /scheduling downloads

Is there any legal sites available for downloading original blue ray rips ?

Netflix should bring offline viewing options to overcome internet bandwidth issues and should provide more quality content. While in US they used to provide Bluy ray discs / original DVD rips with rental options . Those were excellent. After digitized they started compressing ...and quality is downgraded !!

And they should bring more collection of movies. For the amount they are charging they should provide more titles. More of great movies all the time in hollywood not available in netflix though their original titles & series are good.

 

[aakashr]

Yes correct... I also felt sometimes . Even downloading a 1080 p rips (4gb) mkv files easily beats Netflix / amazon prime quality.
Sound separation and sound quality also better in downloaded content.
I stopped downloading rips mainly because of piracy && pain of searching /scheduling downloads

Is there any legal sites available for downloading original blue ray rips ?

Netflix should bring offline viewing options to overcome internet bandwidth issues and should provide more quality content. While in US they used to provide Bluy ray discs / original DVD rips with rental options . Those were excellent. After digitized they started compressing ...and quality is downgraded !!

And they should bring more collection of movies. For the amount they are charging they should provide more titles. More of great movies all the time in hollywood not available in netflix though their original titles & series are good.

You can now download offline from Netflix, not sure of the quality as it's not in mkv. Sadly prime video has no option for 5.1 as yet. I also am big on downloading mkv but have now switched more to streaming, saves the hassle of downloading content.

 

[edjamesx]

You can now download offline from Netflix, not sure of the quality as it's not in mkv. Sadly prime video has no option for 5.1 as yet. I also am big on downloading mkv but have now switched more to streaming, saves the hassle of downloading content.

Its the same quality as we are watching online. It will help only to people who has less internet bandwidth.
Prime video has many 5.1 movies available now. You can check.

Offline option is available only on PC i guess. I did not see any offline options in xbox one x.

 

[lightgamer]

This topic hits a bit close to home as I've researched extensively on how to get the best video quality out of the TV shows/offline movie collection I have.

If you only care about playing all kinds of media and want ease of installation: A shield TV will do just fine. In fact, the 2020 version also has an AI upscaler which is pretty decent for upconversion of 1080p to 4K. Get the pro version if you also want to use it as a plex server. However, I'd recommend making your PC's hard drives as the plex server and Nvidia as the client. This way, you can set up RAID or other fancy storage on your PC, make your REMUX/BR-rips and directly put it up on plex, you should be able to stream it directly on your shield or any other Android TV box you have.

If you care about the absolute best media playback: Set up an ITX HTPC and put in a GTX 1080 ti or an RTX 2070 super in it. RTX 2060 will also work, but it won't be able to reach max settings. The absolute minimum would be a GTX 1060/1650 super, as below it there's no need to go through all this trouble

Now, download the latest MPC-HC from their github master and install it. This should contain the latest LAV filters. Now, download and set up MadVR. Remember, it's a complex procedure and I'd recommend doing it on a weekend. You can overclock the card and try a bit higher settings as well. The above guide helps to set up proper MadVR settings including what upscaling you want, how to do your HDR tone mapping (MadVR's dynamic tone mapping is absolutely crazy good and can even make an HDR10 source look as good as HDR10+/Dolby Vision since all 10+/DV adds is dynamic metadata). Not to mention how great their upscaling and dithering is. You can play absolutely any file and play around with more settings than you want.

Now, let's look at some simple upscaling and rendering results, shall we. I just picked an anime and a TV show (Isekai Quartet and Westworld randomly) to show how it does with both kinds of sources. Both are 1080p 10-bit x265 sources. On 4K the upscaling difference won't be as visible as there'll just be anti-aliasing, though even on 4k sources MadVR looks significantly better than usual media players.

The screenshots exceed the max file size limit, so here they are on imgur. As you can see, not only is MadVR significantly better with detail and upscaling, even the colour processing looks better (at least on my screen). The differences increase further with HDR content, but they won't be conveyed in taking photos or screenshots.

 

[ankitbhargava]

This topic hits a bit close to home as I've researched extensively on how to get the best video quality out of the TV shows/offline movie collection I have.

If you only care about playing all kinds of media and want ease of installation: A shield TV will do just fine. In fact, the 2020 version also has an AI upscaler which is pretty decent for upconversion of 1080p to 4K. Get the pro version if you also want to use it as a plex server. However, I'd recommend making your PC's hard drives as the plex server and Nvidia as the client. This way, you can set up RAID or other fancy storage on your PC, make your REMUX/BR-rips and directly put it up on plex, you should be able to stream it directly on your shield or any other Android TV box you have.

If you care about the absolute best media playback: Set up an ITX HTPC and put in a GTX 1080 ti or an RTX 2070 super in it. RTX 2060 will also work, but it won't be able to reach max settings. The absolute minimum would be a GTX 1060/1650 super, as below it there's no need to go through all this trouble

Now, download the latest MPC-HC from their github master and install it. This should contain the latest LAV filters. Now, download and set up MadVR. Remember, it's a complex procedure and I'd recommend doing it on a weekend. You can overclock the card and try a bit higher settings as well. The above guide helps to set up proper MadVR settings including what upscaling you want, how to do your HDR tone mapping (MadVR's dynamic tone mapping is absolutely crazy good and can even make an HDR10 source look as good as HDR10+/Dolby Vision since all 10+/DV adds is dynamic metadata). Not to mention how great their upscaling and dithering is. You can play absolutely any file and play around with more settings than you want.

Now, let's look at some simple upscaling and rendering results, shall we. I just picked an anime and a TV show (Isekai Quartet and Westworld randomly) to show how it does with both kinds of sources. Both are 1080p 10-bit x265 sources. On 4K the upscaling difference won't be as visible as there'll just be anti-aliasing, though even on 4k sources MadVR looks significantly better than usual media players.

The screenshots exceed the max file size limit, so here they are on imgur. As you can see, not only is MadVR significantly better with detail and upscaling, even the colour processing looks better (at least on my screen). The differences increase further with HDR content, but they won't be conveyed in taking photos or screenshots.

Thats a great insight indeed
Except playing Blu Ray Rips, I haven't liked Shield TV against my Xbox One S
Thanks for the tip that Computer's HDD should be used as Plex Server and not the inbuilt Plex server on Shield.

 

[ankitbhargava]

Infact I experimented with Rpi4 as well, the picture quality was equivalent to Xbox One S and Shield Pro but sound wasn't as impressive. Detailing in bass went completely missing (not sure why even with Passthrough). Dialogues weren't that bright too.

 

[DB1989]

This topic hits a bit close to home as I've researched extensively on how to get the best video quality out of the TV shows/offline movie collection I have.

If you only care about playing all kinds of media and want ease of installation: A shield TV will do just fine. In fact, the 2020 version also has an AI upscaler which is pretty decent for upconversion of 1080p to 4K. Get the pro version if you also want to use it as a plex server. However, I'd recommend making your PC's hard drives as the plex server and Nvidia as the client. This way, you can set up RAID or other fancy storage on your PC, make your REMUX/BR-rips and directly put it up on plex, you should be able to stream it directly on your shield or any other Android TV box you have.

If you care about the absolute best media playback: Set up an ITX HTPC and put in a GTX 1080 ti or an RTX 2070 super in it. RTX 2060 will also work, but it won't be able to reach max settings. The absolute minimum would be a GTX 1060/1650 super, as below it there's no need to go through all this trouble

Now, download the latest MPC-HC from their github master and install it. This should contain the latest LAV filters. Now, download and set up MadVR. Remember, it's a complex procedure and I'd recommend doing it on a weekend. You can overclock the card and try a bit higher settings as well. The above guide helps to set up proper MadVR settings including what upscaling you want, how to do your HDR tone mapping (MadVR's dynamic tone mapping is absolutely crazy good and can even make an HDR10 source look as good as HDR10+/Dolby Vision since all 10+/DV adds is dynamic metadata). Not to mention how great their upscaling and dithering is. You can play absolutely any file and play around with more settings than you want.

Now, let's look at some simple upscaling and rendering results, shall we. I just picked an anime and a TV show (Isekai Quartet and Westworld randomly) to show how it does with both kinds of sources. Both are 1080p 10-bit x265 sources. On 4K the upscaling difference won't be as visible as there'll just be anti-aliasing, though even on 4k sources MadVR looks significantly better than usual media players.

The screenshots exceed the max file size limit, so here they are on imgur. As you can see, not only is MadVR significantly better with detail and upscaling, even the colour processing looks better (at least on my screen). The differences increase further with HDR content, but they won't be conveyed in taking photos or screenshots.

Is there any disadvantage/shortcoming of the non-super/ti variants of the abovesaid cards?

 

[harryneopotter]

Is there any disadvantage/shortcoming of the non-super/ti variants of the abovesaid cards?

Lesser performance.

 

[DB1989]

Lesser performance.

I'm aware that gaming performance is better than non super cards. But does it make a difference insofar as media playback is concerned?

 

[OM_2K19]

I hooked my Samsung SSD to the Asus 86U router and using it as a media server (a built-in feature of the router). It works like a charm on my Q80R (built-in player). The only downside, the Samsung player can't play the DTS/ATMOS due to licensing restrictions. But I am on 5.1 set-up so it's kinda okay with me.

 

[lightgamer]

Is there any disadvantage/shortcoming of the non-super/ti variants of the abovesaid cards?

Not really, you can get an RTX 2080 instead of the 2070 super as both have about the same performance. I recommend the super series as they're cheaper for the same performance. For example, the RTX 2080 is 50k while 2070 super is around 40k and both perform about the same.

Anyway, now that the 30 series is coming, don't buy a new card. 3070 is supposed to be around 2080 ti for 51k and price will reduce in a few months as well.

 

[Tuhin Lavania]

Not really, you can get an RTX 2080 instead of the 2070 super as both have about the same performance. I recommend the super series as they're cheaper for the same performance. For example, the RTX 2080 is 50k while 2070 super is around 40k and both perform about the same.

Anyway, now that the 30 series is coming, don't buy a new card. 3070 is supposed to be around 2080 ti for 51k and price will reduce in a few months as well.

Actually the 3070 outperforms the 2080Ti. In theory, it looks wonderful, lets see the real world benchmarks.

 

[DB1989]

Actually the 3070 outperforms the 2080Ti. In theory, it looks wonderful, lets see the real world benchmarks.

I think one of the channels on youtube has already run benchmarks and confirmed that it does. The fact that it outperforms it at halff the cost has nearly delivered the death knell to radeon.

 

[lightgamer]

Actually the 3070 outperforms the 2080Ti. In theory, it looks wonderful, lets see the real world benchmarks.

Based on Nvidia's own graphs the 3070 and 2080 ti are exactly equal (maybe the 3070 is 1% faster, hence they can claim faster). Third party testing will make the real truth known, but it should be within +/- 5%.

But MadVR just uses the CUDA core compute, which the 3070 is faster in, so 3070 can be significantly better than 2080ti for video upscaling as it has more FP throughput.